Definitions of Crime
The study of the making of laws, breaking of laws, and society’s reaction to law-breaking.
What is Criminology?
Official police data, court data, and corrections data are known as this type of data source.
What is administrative data?
The Enlightenment thinker who argued for rational punishment.
Who is Cesare Beccaria?
The Chicago School introduced this neighbourhood-based model.
What is the concentric zone model?
Crime rates typically peak in this age range.
What is 15–24 years old?
This term refers to crimes that are not detected, reported, or recorded.
What is the dark figure of crime?
The classification scheme used in Australia and New Zealand for offences.
What is ANZSOC?
The three principles of deterrence.
What are certainty, severity, and celerity?
Shaw & McKay identified these three characteristics of disorganised neighbourhoods.
What are low SES, ethnic heterogeneity, and residential instability?
Women’s share of robbery in Australia rose from ~14% in 2008–09 to this in 2022–23.
What is ~21%?
QLD, WA, TAS, NT base their criminal law on this system.
What are criminal codes?
The three main sources of crime data.
What are official data, victimisation surveys, and self-report studies?
Deterrence aimed at discouraging the general public from crime.
What is general deterrence?
Durkheim used this term to describe “normlessness.”
What is anomie?
First Nations Australians make up ~2% of the population but over __% of prisoners.
What is 30%?
This type of offence is not criminal but may involve lawsuits between private parties.
What is a civil offence?
Calculating crime by population size instead of raw numbers gives you this.
What is a crime rate?
This theory assumes people weigh costs/benefits and make rational choices about crime.
What is Rational Choice Theory?
Hirschi proposed this theory based on four “bonds.”
What is Social Bond Theory?
This overlap shows that many people experience both roles.
What is the victim–offender overlap?
A definition of crime based on harm and human rights rather than law.
What is the harm-based definition?
This type of research method uses in-depth interviews, observations, or case studies to explore crime beyond statistics.
What is qualitative research?
Evidence suggests this principle of deterrence is most effective.
What is certainty of punishment?
Gottfredson & Hirschi’s 1990 theory focused on this single trait.
What is low self-control?
Living in these socially unstable areas increases both offending and victimisation
What are high-crime / socially disorganised areas?